Libya: Some observations

You do not lose a cause by fighting for what you believe is right, you do not win a game by playing with four times as many players on an uneven playing field; you do become a hero if you managed to keep playing in these conditions for six months. What is happening in Libya right now isn't about winning or losing, it is about right and wrong.

I do not support an international community which uses two sets of weights and measures to resolve international issues, I do not support an international community in which the proper forum for crisis management - the UN Security Council, simply does not work because it is a Chamber for trading interests among the powerful while the developing world is not represented equally.

I do not support an international community in which a clique of military powers band together and yet again invent a war based upon lies, I do not support an international community in which the rule of law is bent to favour the strongest and the greedy.

This is not my international community, I did not vote for it. Mine is not a community of bullies, mine is not a community of murderers who arm, aid and finance groups of terrorists to take power, interfering directly in an internal conflict by bombing the legitimate government forces so that their "terrorists" can advance, then claim victory. That for me is not a manly way to fight, it is cowardice.

It is sheer, yellow-bellied, snivelling cowardice, it is the law of the jungle, it is mob rule. Mine is not an international community in which nations can feel free to make or break the law, breach the UN Charter, breach the UNSC Resolutions, breach the Geneva Conventions, set up kangaroo courts and claim they represent right and reason and justice.

It is not noble to fight unfairly, it is not noble to steal, it is not noble to covet the resources of your neighbour, it is not noble to gang up and attack a weaker foe. It is not righteous to purposefully target civilian homes occasioning the murder of children, it is not righteous to strafe civilian structures with military equipment and it cannot be right in any code of law to attack food supplies and water resources to "break people's backs".

NATO can claim what it likes, it can claim it did not put boots on the ground on August 22, it can claim its death squads did not enter Tripoli from the sea, it can claim it did not carry out an act of cyber terrorism by taking out the Internet in Tripoli, it can claim it did not carry out an act of electronic terrorism by hacking into the telephone and communications networks, it can claim that its controlled media did not use fake images based upon models to shape public opinion, while really behind the scenes its assassination squads used the notion that the streets were full of cheering "rebels" (many of them foreigners) as a smokescreen to wipe out the opposition within 48 hours.

Quite how successful this Operation Siren was, we shall see in the forthcoming two days. Whatever the outcome, it doesn't make it legal, it doesn't make it righteous, it doesn't make it right. No boots on the ground, no arming of "rebels". Those were the rules that were established by international law. You do not win by playing dirty, you show quite how vile and low you are.

You can play a soccer match by shooting seven members of the opposing team, bribing the referee and linesmen to say they saw nothing and then play on with six balls and sixteen players. Does that mean you won? And if the opposing team keeps a clean sheet for six months, does that mean it lost?

Supporting what is right also means we should not gloat over the deaths of human beings, it also means we should adhere to the fight using international law, it means we should carry on this fight through the properly instituted legal channels. This is not about winning or losing. It is about good beating evil.

And in the history of Mankind, all Gods have always won the fight with the Devil. And after what NATO has done, we see very clearly that this sinister and evil organization has sold its soul to the Demon and cavorts with Satan every hour of every day of every week. As for those responsible for this act, which as we read and write is costing human lives, on whatever side of the divide they may be, they will be brought to justice.

Whether or not anything happens to them is not for me to say. I do not take the law into my own hands. Whatever happens to them will be a telling remark on the state our international community has reached, and then if needs be, the onus will be upon us to change what is wrong. If they have the right, then so do we.

These last six months have been depressing as yet again we witnessed a wholesale travesty of justice and reconfirmed the notion that our politicians are no more than a marketing team which puts the gloss on the product cooked up by the lobbies that control them and those who they represent. This is not my democracy.

However we, as an international community of brothers and sisters, have come through this stronger. It is perfectly clear that NATO can never, ever again be trusted because since the voluntary dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (how naïve can you get?) NATO has lied time and time and time again. Never again can the UNSC take NATO's word or allow a diploma to pass without the proper and a complete scrutiny.

No more accepting that the details will be filled in later. So on the diplomatic front, NATO is weaker.

In military terms, it took NATO six months to reach Tripoli and even as I write, there are signs the fight is far from over. On the military front, NATO is a joke. The rule today is, arm yourself to the teeth and NATO, like the bunch of cowards they are, will not dare to attack you. A coward only attacks someone who is defenceless and even so, Colonel Gaddafy withstood 6 whole months of savage battery - and as I write, is showing signs that the fight is not over.

Finally, it is clear that international public opinion does not reside with NATO, the hearts and minds of the international community were and shall remain with Muammar al-Qathafi and his tremendous anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and social development projects across Africa. This conflict has brought the international community closer together (and I refer to the 6.9 billion people of the world, not the less than 1,000 people who govern us).

We have seen the tremendous solidarity of the citizens of the world behind their Libyan brothers - particularly so in the case of Serbia - and today we all have new contacts, we have made new friends, we have come into contact with other like-minded people who respect human life and dignity and who deride those who behave like thugs. We are the international community, we are the people of the world, the world is ours.

I do not know which God those Libyan terrorists invoke when they chant "Allahu Akhbar". But after the way they have behaved, I see that my God does not rape women, my God does not commit acts of arson, my God does not condone looting, my God does not kidnap women, my God does not murder children, my God does not behead people, my God is not racist, my God does not torture, my God does not steal. I believe, then, that the name they invoke is not God, but Satan.

And that, certainly, makes me stronger.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru